Welcome to the Consumerist Archives

Thanks for visiting Consumerist.com. As of October 2017, Consumerist is no longer producing new content, but feel free to browse through our archives. Here you can find 12 years worth of articles on everything from how to avoid dodgy scams to writing an effective complaint letter. Check out some of our greatest hits below, explore the categories listed on the left-hand side of the page, or head to CR.org for ratings, reviews, and consumer news.

Jesse has a credit card that he doesn’t use, but keeps open to help his credit score. Citibank has foiled his brilliant plan by adding a $60 annual fee. He can avoid the fee by charging at least $2,400 on the card each year. [More]

Bank of America has announced that it plans on “testing” annual fees on some of its reward cards starting next year. The odds are good you won’t see this—a BoA spokeswoman says it will only be tested on 1 percent of accounts globally—but who knows? Maybe the BoA Fairy will smack you down.

Michael is in a situation that we anticipate will become very, very common in the coming months. His credit card company has imposed a $99 annual fee. He can accept the fee, or close his account. Not only is this his only credit card, but it’s the oldest credit line he has, so closing it would hurt his credit score. What would you do?

Chuck lost his job several months ago and wanted to continue his American Express membership, but had trouble justifying the $50 annual fee in his limited budget. So he launched an Executive Email Carpet Bomb, started his own anti-AmEx blog and started picketing…

“Revolvers”—customers who keep a revolving balance on their credit cards—used to be the cash crop for credit card companies. But now more and more of them are turning into expensive charge-offs, and the new CARD act is going to make it harder to acquire those riskier customers anyway. As a result, card companies are beginning to look more closely at the customer who was most hated back in the credit-orgy years: the deadbeat.

Part of

Founded in 2005, Consumerist® is an independent source of consumer news and information published by Consumer Media LLC, a not-for-profit subsidiary of Consumer Reports.